A Very Mianite Christmas
by Lieutenant Side Salad
Summary: When Dianite goes missing a few days before Christmas it's up to the four newest members of Mianite to track him down and stop a war from breaking out on Christmas. Rated T for minor swearing, like twice.


A long time ago, a time before the Island of Mianite existed, holidays meant a great deal to the Gods. Back then the three of them were very close and even though they had been through hell and back since then, Christmas time still brought back fonds memories for them. So, when the first Christmas rolled around, they decided they would create a new tradition for the island and the people that inhabited it. For the month of December a truce would be held; There would be no fights, no killing, and no malicious pranks(Playful pranks weren't banned, because they would need _something _to do to pass the time). Even the Gods were free to visit each others realms, not that they did that much. It was a truly peaceful time for the island.

The thought of this sacred truce filled the most recent newcomers to the island with excitement, they couldn't wait to spend the month preparing and celebrating as one giant family. The first three weeks went by rather uneventfully; They gathered supplies for decorating and started their work, nothing extremely fun or note-worthy. Of course, things were doomed to fall apart at one point or another, tensions and rivalries could only be ignored for so many years before someone finally decided that they didn't care about the truce. It was the day before Christmas Eve, two days before Christmas, and the festiveness that had infected everyone was coming apart at the seams. Dianite had gone missing; His siblings were convinced that he was planning something awful, that he was going to destroy their holiday.

The Gods paranoia was rubbing off on their followers, and the tempers original Mianite crew were flaring. The four newest followers had been closer to each other, rarely letting their differences in allegiances affect how they acted towards one another, and as such weren't as hostile during this crisis. War was threatening to break out, and no one except them seemed to be willing to stop it. Mianite and Ianite refused to trust their brother, Syndicate flung insults and hurtful accusations at them for distrusting his God, and Jericho, Firefoxx, and Sparklez were teaming up against Syndicate and his fellow Dianitees; Everyone was seconds away from letting their frustrations spill over.

Someone had to do something, and that someone was Soaryn. There was no way she'd get any help from the first Dianitees, Nadeshot had kept his distance from everyone during the holiday and Syndicate was still convinced that everyone that wasn't him was just a "Side Bitch" and therefor didn't deserve his help, so it was up to the last two people who joined Dianite's team. She would have to pay a visit to Zero and Ender and hope that they felt the same way she did.

Packing up a few sparse supplies, hoping her task wouldn't take her far enough to need more, she turned her heavy-booted steps in the direction of Ender's house. She trusted that the dark-haired girl would join her without question, it was just a part of her personality to help out a friend with something like this. In fact, she'd probably follow Soaryn the minute she found out if she didn't try to bring her along. Zero and her tempered personality would probably take more coaxing, so she would pay her a visit second.

"Aah, he's escaping! Quick, get the nametag!"

"Don't look at him, don't look at him!"

Approaching Ender's home, which was built conveniently close to the End Portal, she could hear loud voices coming from the inside. The door hung open, like it had been broken and replaced in a hurry. Soaryn stepped into the doorway, peering around the side curiously. She was greeted with a rather chaotic scene; Ender was hurriedly digging through a chest, tossing things aside left and right, while another figure was struggling to keep an Enderman from walking out of the house or teleporting away. It took Soaryn a couple seconds to recognize Ianite's newest follower, Lieutenant.

"Ahah!"

"Name him, name him!"

With a triumphant cry, Ender jumped up from leaning over the chest and dashed over to a nearby anvil. After changing the tag she rushed over to her smaller companion and placed the tag over the Enderman's neck, carefully making sure she didn't make eye contact. The Enderman, newly dubbed "Teleporting Tim", made a couple grunting noises and then shuffled around a bit. Lieu and Ender high-fived each other, and the taller girl pulled out a pumpkin pie to celebrate their successful task. Once everything had calmed down, Soaryn cleared her throat loudly to get their attention.

"Soaryn! What brings you to my humble abode, friend?" Ender cried out with a smile, struggling not to laugh as she realized that the green-eyed girl had witnessed everything.

"Trouble." She replied simply.

Knowing that the time for games was over, Ender blinked and moved closer. Understanding flashed across Lieutenant's face and she darted after Ender with quick, tiny steps. Although she was the youngest of the group and painfully shorter than them, her mauve eyes were deep with wisdom of the situation; It surprised Soaryn to realize that she knew exactly what was going on so quickly.

"We're going to find Dianite, aren't we?"

Soaryn nodded, a half-smile crossing her face. It was a relief to not have to explain her reasons for visiting, but she couldn't help but feel a little put off by the girl's question; Shouldn't the follower of peace and balance, of all people, be the one to instigate this sort of plan? She could tell from the look on Ender's face that she felt the same way, and Lieu glanced away guiltily.

"I've thought about it too, you know. I just...I couldn't do it by myself, and Lord knows I couldn't ask Sparklez to help."

The darker brown-haired girl tipped her head to the side slightly, indicating for Lieutenant to explain.

"You know how the originals are, surely. He was proud of being Ianite's one and only follower, he won't like me encroaching on his territory, so to speak. I try to avoid him when at all possible, it's not best to get on my only ally's bad side."

Her two companions murmured their sympathies, understanding her worries. Instead of pushing the subject any further, Ender started gathering supplies and passing any extras over to Lieu, since she wouldn't have time to return to her own home. Once they were all set, Ender with her best enchanted bow and Lieu brandishing her special blaze rod, the three set out in the direction of Zero's house.

Convincing Zero to come along would be a completely different story, due to her grumpy nature and sharp tongue. Soaryn ran countless scenarios through her mind as they moved, trying to figure out how best to broach the subject with their scaly friend. She was a good friend of theirs, being another Dianitee, but her temper was still prone to showing through and that made tasks like this difficult. _Still, it was surprising to see Lieutenant so willing to join us since it's not her God, so perhaps things will be easy with Zero too, _She thought with a glance behind her.

Soon they came upon their friend's home and Soaryn knocked on the door, taking the lead. Everything was silent for a minute or two, they began to worry that she was ignoring them completely, and then the door swung open with sudden flourish, which left them all blinking in surprise. Zero was all decked out for the holidays, complete with a Christmas sweater, hat and lights, and her home looked just as festive as she did. They were all struck speechless by this phenomenon, it was so unlike the grumpy Zero they knew to be like this.

"What are you staring at?"

This statement brought them all back to their senses, the rough tone definitely fit their friend more than the lights. The three of them couldn't help but grin, which only seemed to annoy Zero further.

"N-nothing! You certainly look...nice!" Ender said, trying to hold back her laughter.

"Oh, laugh all you want! Christmas just happens to be my favorite holiday, okay?"

Zero glanced away, looking angry, amused and embarrassed all at once. After everyone had gotten the giggles out of their systems, Soaryn cleared her throat. Zero glanced over them quickly, noting the gear and travelling equipment.

"Something tells me you didn't just stop by to say hello. What's up?"

"We're going to find Dianite, because if we don't, we won't be having a Christmas at all." Soaryn was the one to step forward and answer.

"Why not?" Zero looked slightly skeptical, but mainly just worried about not getting to celebrate the holiday.

"Because we'll be too busy killing each other. The Gods and the Originals are already at one another's throats, it's only a matter of time before things get heated. We have to hurry."

Zero nodded, barely letting Soaryn finish speaking before turning and grabbing a weapon or two. Facing them again, she nodded to show that she was ready. Ender and Lieu exchanged glances, like they were worried that she should grab some more, but Soaryn was starting to feel more and more pressured. They had to leave as soon as possible. So they walked outside and then stopped, the three of them turning to Soaryn to see where they were to start.

"It's time to go to the Nether."

Lieutenant almost looked like she flinched, but the movement was so subtle that Soaryn wondered if she imagined it.

"Should we really check there first? I mean, if he's missing then surely he wouldn't be hiding in his home."

"That's why we have to check there, it's so obvious that most people would skip over it!" Ender piped in to save Soaryn from having to keep talking.

Their tiny friend didn't look convinced, but she didn't push the conversation any further either. Soaryn's searching gaze met Lieutenants deep purple eyes for a couple heartbeats, but the latter dropped her gaze after a while and motioned for them to start moving. _She's definitely hiding something. Maybe she's just scared of the Nether, it's pretty dangerous normally and she's so little. _Soaryn convinced herself before glancing away and beginning their journey towards the priest's house.

Their little gang trooped across the land, the sky having long since grown dark. This put them all on edge, it meant they only a single day left to find the missing God. They had sufficient reason to speed up too, since, in an effort to distract themselves from worrying, Ender and Lieu had been running around name-tagging random mobs that they found cool; They now had an entourage of two chicken jockeys and a full chainmail armor zombie. Zero seemed slightly annoyed by this, but Soaryn didn't mind. These antics seemed to calm the two of them down, and anything that kept them from bailing on the mission was good in Soaryn's book.

"Do you really think we'll find him in time?"

The scaled girl asked quietly as, yet again, the other two dashed ahead to examine a pigman who had come through the Nether Portal. Soaryn raised an eye brow to question her friend.

"We don't know that he's even here. If he isn't then we'll have wasted a day, we'll only have tomorrow left to find him."

She was voicing the concerns that Soaryn had been pushing to the back of her mind. _What if we never find him? What if we do, but he won't come back? We can't force a God to do something against his will. There will be a war on Christmas Day if we fail._

"We'll just have to hope for the best. There's no use in worrying over things we can't control." She answered, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt.

Zero stared at her grimly, and for a heartbeat Soaryn thought she was about to turn back. But she only shook her head slowly and let out a soft noise of sorrow.

"For our own sakes, I hope your right."

The tough girl's lack of faith was slightly disconcerting, but Soaryn couldn't dwell on that for long. They had reached the portal and now Ender and Lieu stood on either side of it with unreadable expressions. The taller of the two just seemed to be thinking about the mission itself, while the shorter one's faces was awash with anxiety. Entering into the Nether, they were bathed with hot, acrid air. It felt as far from Christmas-y as it could get here.

Getting to Dianite's Temple was easy since they all had been there before, the next step was where it became difficult. Finding Dianite himself was always going to be tricky, but Soaryn hadn't anticipated hitting a road block this early in their expedition. The stood in the entrance of the Temple, with Furia blocking their way. Normally seeing Furia would have been no big deal, since he was one of them after all, but now he barred their entrance.

"You cannot bring that _thing _into milord's Temple."

His raspy voice echoed in the large space, while his dark eyes were fixed on a cowering Lieutenant. Her three friends glanced back, confusion clear on their faces, but didn't argue. They _had_ to find Dianite, even if it meant that only three of them could continue on. Lieutenant didn't seem all to concerned by their decision, in fact, she seemed rather relieved to be free of Furia's malevolent gaze. And so, Soaryn, Zero and Ender continued on alone.

"Why have you come?" Furia growled again, still seeming hostile.

Soaryn and Zero exchanged glances with raised eyebrows, Furia had never questioned their comings and goings before. It was normal for them to bring sacrifices or prayers to their God. Ender took a step forward with a placating look on her face, trying to avoid having Furia lose his temper;

"W-we're looking for Lord Dianite, of course!"

"Why?"

"Because we are, it's none of your business." Zero grumbled.

"He's not here. Haven't your _friends _told you? Lord Dianite has gone missing."

Soaryn narrowed her eyes slightly, as did Zero. Ender shuffled her feet and tried to figure out what to say next. None of them believed Furia's words, he had questioned them much too quickly earlier and there was definitely something shifty about the way he kept glancing towards one of the walls beside them. They all stared at each other for several minutes, in a tense stalemate, when suddenly a scream echoed around them eerily. The three girls flinched and looked around frantically as they tried to figure where the sound originated from, because they recognized that voice immediately. Lieutenant was in trouble. Zero and Ender spun around, calling out to her.

Soaryn stared at Furia, not missing the fact that he had jerked slightly at the noise too and had glanced at a button about fifteen or so blocks away. Their eyes met and they tensed, both waiting for the first sign of movement from the other. Furia caved first and ran for it, with Soaryn hard on his heels. He hit the button and immediately fizzled into particles, disappearing in seconds. Ender and Zero turned just in time to see Soaryn do the same and they followed suit as quickly as they could.

The button was a teleporter and the two of them glanced around, trying to get their bearings. The first thing they noticed were Soaryn and Furia, who were both staring upward at something, no! _someone, _who was standing on a ledge high above them. They recognized Lord Dianite first and moved to kneel in respect, but that's when they noticed the figure he held near him. Neither of them could move now, as they stared into the face of this hostage and tried hard not to start shaking uncontrollably.

Lieutenant was struggling in vain to free herself, but she was tiny enough that the God could easily hold her high enough that her feet were a good foot or two above the ground. He wasn't even holding her, he was gripping the end of the soft, purple scarf their friend always wore. The item that she always wore as a sort of comforting pendant was now her undoing, it was knotted and wrapped around her neck without hope of coming undone. The longer Dianite held onto it the tighter it got. Her eyes were already bulging and filled with pure terror. The screams could come no more, she was choking and gagging, but it was to tight for her to make any sound. If they didn't hurry then Dianite would surely kill her.

"Furia, I thought you were supposed to be keeping intruders out-"

"I-I have been, milord!"

"SILENCE! If you have been doing what you were told, then how come I found this _rat _skulking around my chambers? You let a follower of Ianite break into my Temple and snoop around."

"She's with _us_! Lord Dianite, please put her down. We can explain everything, just, please don't kill our friend!"

The God watched them for several long seconds, as Lieutenant kicked out frantically with foam beginning to fleck in the corners of her mouth, before lowering his hand. As soon as her boots hit the ground the girl flung herself away from Dianite in an attempt to distance herself from him, but her plan was thwarted as he jerked the end of her scarf back and she fell backwards with a loud, strangled sound. He now held a heavy foot on her neck so that she could make no further moves to escape, not that she could even manage as she gasped to regain her breath.

"Go ahead, start explaining. You'd better have the best damned explanation I've heard for barging in here with an Ianitee in tow."

"My Lord, we were searching for you! The other Gods are suspicious of your disappearance and their followers are preparing to attack Tom and Nadeshot, because they think you're going to attack them on Christmas and break the truce."

"Yeah, we came to find you before they started a war! You have to come back with us and tell them not to do it!"

Dianite was silent for a long time with a thoughtful expression on his dark face, none of them were brave enough to try and rush his thought process or even try and persuade them more. Finally a grin broke across his face, a rather scary one given his general appearance, and they all took a couple steps back, not knowing what to expect.

"Why, of course I'll go console them! I wouldn't want this war to ruin my...surprise!"

The three Dianitee's exchanged confused glances, not really sure where this burst of amiableness came from. Much to their surprise, he lifted his foot away from Lieutenant and moved back several feet. The tiny girl shifted her head slightly and stared at him distrustfully. After a minute passed without the God doing anything else, she jumped to her feet and stumbled as fast as she could down the ledge and back over to her friends. She was shaking pretty badly and her neck was already bruised. Ender moved in front of her protectively as they waited for Dianite to elaborate.

"Well, I guess I can't leave it as a surprise anymore. That's right, I was hiding because I was planning a big fireworks display for my siblings and the other followers! If I promise to go back now, will you promise not to tell them?"

Soaryn, Zero and Ender smiled and nodded quickly, happy that their God had only been planning something like this, and not on causing full-out nuclear warfare on Christmas. With that, Dianite disappeared, probably to go visit Mianite and Ianite. Furia looked a little startled by the turn of events and openly glared at the four of them. Zero and Soaryn bid the others farewell and left in the direction of their respective homes to prepare for the coming celebration, while Ender supported the injured Lieutenant and told her that she could stay the night with her while she recovered.

_ x X Christmas Day X x _

Everything had gone perfectly after the four of them returned. The Gods apologized to their brother for jumping to conclusions so quickly and their followers pretended like they hadn't been stockpiling weapons and potions for annihilating each other. They day of went perfectly as well, presents were exchanged, feasts were eaten, pranks were pulled, and good feelings were felt all around. Soaryn, Zero, Ender, and Lieutenant became the heroes of the day; The Gods promising heavenly gifts in payment of stopping the war.

Even the Originals had finally warmed up to their younger allies. Syndicate decided that they could be fully-fledged followers of Dianite now, although he was still Dianite's right-hand man, and that they were above Nadeshot on the "best Dianitee's" list. While they basked in his attention, Soaryn glanced over to see that even Lieutenant had gotten a good reception from her fellow Ianitee. Sparklez was patting her head with a smile, no doubt congratulating her on surviving an attack from Dianite, and she was staring up at him with an awed "Senpai has noticed me!" look on her face. It was truly a wonderful Christmas.

Night was just beginning to fall when Dianite finally announced that he had a surprise for everyone. The four of them exchanged excited glances, this was what they had been waiting for! They wondered what amazing surprise the God had planned for them all. He pulled out a lever and set it on the ground next to some redstone and suddenly Ender cried out excitedly;

"Fireworks!"

She predicted the bright explosions just seconds before they went off, the air around they suddenly broken with loud booms, and "oohs" and "aahs". Unfortunately, the beauty of the moment was quickly squashed, as a huge crater opened up fifty blocks in front of them. At first no one knew what was going on, the Mianite and Ianite flew into the air with cries of outrage. It took the Originals a couple of seconds to comprehend their Gods commands, and then they pulled out their weapons and turned on one another.

"What...just happened?" Zero exclaimed, taking cover behind some debris that had blown back by one of the explosion.

"I think we've been tricked." Lieutenant piped up from somewhere nearby.

As it turned out, Dianite's surprise wasn't just a pretty fireworks display. With every one that went off, bundles of tnt were sent flying all around the island, leaving craters pocketing the land. Their little excursion had given the chaotic God the perfect opportunity to catch all of them off-guard, because they believed the four of them when they said that Dianite had nothing up his sleeve. He had used their naivety to his advantage.

Now the Gods were hurling lightning and other powers at one another, Syndicate was spawn-killing Jericho, Nadeshot was chasing Firefoxx around the Community Farm, and Sparklez was trying desperately to keep Jerrry's Tree 2.0 from going up in flames. The four friends exchanged glances, like they weren't quite sure how things had escalated so quickly.

"Oops." Zero muttered.

"Well...I guess now it really _is _a Mianite Christmas." Ender shrugged, determinedly optimistic.

_AN: I bet you guys didn't expect that gag ending, did ya? I was totally going to have this serious all the way through, with like some plot twist things that involved Lieu being an ex-Dianitee and some other stuff, but then my brother pitched this idea to me and I couldn't resist. I'm sure you guys won't find this anywhere near as amusing as I did, but you'd understand if you'd heard him explaining this to me and ending his explanation with "Who else but Dianite?", and using a spot-on perfect impression of that episode of Family Guy when they did the whole "who else but Quagmire" thing. I about died of laughter._

_But anyway, Merry Christmas friends! :D I hope you like this little gift, even though it's not much. I haven't been here for long, but I've already made some absolutely amazing friends! Thank you for being so supportive and just awesome overall TheAmazingQwerty, NegativeZer0Gravity, and Enderdeath731! And I'm also apparently the only Ianitee out of us #iamsoalonecries xD_

_ (Also, Soaryn, Zero and Ender belong to those amazing peeps, and Lieu belongs to meh, so yeah.)_


End file.
